Where life leads us

Prolog

I watched dreamily a father, who swirled his child high into the air, and the child's resounding laughter rang out. The mother stood next to her with a stroller and watched them. They seemed like a normal, happy family. A family I never had and will never have. Not that I didn't have parents, but it was complicated. With six parents, nothing got easier, but only harder. Not least because my biological parents always have to say the opposite of each other. My adoptive parents, as like me, sat in between and had to make the final decisions.

Even though I actually lived with my adoptive parents in Switzerland, I always had contact with my biological parents. Finally, my adoptive parents were also the cousins of the uncle, the daughter-in-law of my mother's great-aunt. I was no longer directly related to them, but for my mother it was still family. She herself had not been allowed to raise me, which is why she had been looking for a family in the family. My mother was 15 and my father was 16 when I was born. As strictly Catholic, rich parents, my grandparents had had half a heart attack when they learned of their daughter's pregnancy. The fact that my father also came from a rich Catholic family did not make the circumstances any better.

Together, my grandparents had decided to remove the shame. But my mother couldn't have an abortion anymore, as she had already been in the fourth month. So they quickly looked for another solution and found it in my adoptive family. They already had three children and were still part of the family. So that no one had heard of my mother's pregnancy, she had been submerged by my foster family and publicly apologized to her as sick.

After the birth, my mother had gone back to Spain and had not lost a word about me. My father had walked out of the way as best she could, which was not difficult because he lived in Italy. They both saw the culprit in the other. This had not changed in the twenty years I have been in the world. They couldn't even be in the same city without arguing with each other.

The best thing about my family constellation is Christmas, because I got three times as many gifts as other children. In addition, my biological parents always tried to outdo each other, which could be great but also quite annoying. In addition, Christmas always meant travel stress for me. First, I celebrated on December 24th with my adoptive family, after that I always drive the three hours south to my father and on December 26th I always flew to Barcelona to my mother.

Generally, my life was full of travel, because I grew up between the three worlds. I always spent half my holidays with my father in Monza and my mother in Barcelona. Most of the time, my parents didn't even have time for me because they had too much around their ears with their companies. I had almost got used to it, but I was disappointed every time. Because I couldn't stop the hope that it might be different. Every single time it broke my heart, even though I actually knew it before. But it was too much to spend at least half a day with my parents. With my parents apparently already, because even my stepparents had more time for me than my physical ones.

My father didn't like my mother's husband at all, because he saw me as his daughter and also treated him. This had often caused a major controversy and I had always been in the middle of it. I never understood why the adults were arguing. After all, they always argued in their mother tongues and I couldn't speak Spanish or Italian. My parents had never taught me because they thought English was more important. Maybe it was better if I didn't always understand everything. Because the two did not deal with each other prissy, this had always been clear to me.

When I was very young, I had always hoped that my parents would get along again. At that time I still had the hope of having a happy family. I had buried this dream at the latest when I was enrolled. In front of my whole class, they had both started screaming. Just because my father didn't want me to sit next to a boy. The subject of boys hadn't gotten any better since then. Just when he heard a boy take out of my mouth, he almost went to the ceiling. In his eyes, he was supposed to be the only man in my life, apart from my adoptive father. That's why I never told Dad about my relationship. Not that they were worth mentioning. None of them had been really serious, which Dad would have liked even less.

A vibrating in my pocket made me scare. I hastily pulled the small device out of my back pocket and opened the new message. My father had written to me where I would stay. It was a miracle that he had even noticed that I was no longer in his hotel. But I didn't want to get in the way of him and his collaborator, because this morning everyone was already running nervously back and forth. You might have thought the Queen would come, but only two F1 teams would be staying at his hotel.

I quickly wrote back to him that I was on my way back from Milan. Which I really did. I strolled comfortably to the train station, as I was not really in a hurry to get back to the hotel in Monza. Should my father receive the overpaid carousel drivers without me. I didn't care about the trouble I was going to get.

Together with hundreds of other people, I left the crowded train and headed straight to the hotel. For the beginning of September it was still so warm, which I just enjoyed very much. In front of the hotel I had stopped briefly and held my face in the direction of the sun, as if it were giving me strength for what would follow.

I casually shoved my sunglasses on my head and looked around in the praise. Directly at the reception stood a large group of people with a blue shirt, on which stood Red Bull. Dad stood in such a way that he couldn't see me directly through the crowd. I wanted to take my chance and sneak into the elevators. But why often luck wasn't on my side and Dad had noticed me.

"Laura Maria Sophia Francesca Valentina Katherina Russo Lopez! Come here immediately,"the not-so-friendly voice of my father sounded. I had pulled my head in as if he couldn't see me like that anymore. But it didn't help, so I put on a fake smile and turned around. With a broad smile I approached my father and stood next to him.

Dad put one hand on my shoulder and then proudly said: "My daughter, is studying economics. One day she will probably take over my company." My parents had hoped that I would take over their businesses, which is why they had urged me to study economics. But I didn't know if it was going to be anything. I was rattled by the intermediate test and had to wait until the winter before I was allowed to do it again. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to do that at all. After all, I started this study only because of my parents, because I wanted to make them proud. I found the study boring, which probably led to me not making it. I hadn't been able to tell my parents yet, because they would probably go to the ceiling. That's why I was still waiting for the right moment, which would probably come when my parents were in the grave.

My father pressed my shoulder lightly, so that I might say something: "Hey. » Shaking my head, my father detached his hand from my shoulder and I looked into amused faces in f1 teams. Of course, it wasn't much or creative, but what else should I have said? My father had already introduced me and my whole CV with me. I also didn't care what these jokes thought of me. I wouldn't see her again after this weekend.

My father quickly handed over the keys and the team disappeared into the elevators. My father waited briefly, staring at the place where the team had just disappeared. Inside, I was already preparing for the punishment that would follow. Because my father's face had got a slight glimmer of red, only with need he had been able to control himself in front of the Red Bull team.

"Do you really know how we are facing them now?! At least you could have behaved a little better if you were already running around in such an elevator!», my gaze slid down at me. I don't care about anything bad. I was wearing shorts and a belly-free top with sneakers, something everyone my age would wear. After all, it was almost 30 °C today.

I wanted to open my mouth to reciprocate, but my father stopped me:"Don't tell me to speak back young lady! You could at least have apologized for your delay! What's the point with your index finger, I'm not done yet." Behind my father, the next Formula 1 team had stepped into the lobby. I had tried to make this clear to my father, but he had totally taken revenge and did not understand my hint.

With teeth bitten together so that no one could read my lips, I tried to draw my father's attention again to the behind him: "Behind you is the other team." As if struck by lightning, my father turned around and put on a broad smile. I had to bite my lip so as not to laugh. I had already forgotten the sermon, because Dad's facial expression had simply been brilliant.

With a smile, I was next to my father: "Welcome to Russo. Sorry, please, that they had to wait a short time, small families' discussion. Be that as it may, welcome. We hope you had a pleasant trip. My name is Laura Russo.» With a fake smile, I stared at the mainly men in orange and blue shirts and stalked my father. He had not yet published a word with terror and shame.

"Excuse me a lot, as my daughter said, let's welcome her to Russo," now I hit my head, "I'm the owner and manger Mario Russo." My gaze wandered through the men standing in front of me. He stopped by a very young man. Beautiful gray as met mine and made me forget the world.

My father only wanted to nudge me slightly, but apart from the boy I had nothing more, this little bump had been enough. Abruptly I was pulled out of my world by this push and tried to save myself from the ground. I probably wouldn't have made it without my father. Just in time, Dad had wrapped his arms around my belly and pulled me over. Carefully, my father let me go when he was sure that I could now stand on my own two feet again.

Embarrassed, I lifted my gaze and looked into the boy's amused face, which made me turn red. At that moment, I would have liked to have disappeared into the ground. That's why I quickly turned to the lady behind the reception and requested the room keys. The main thing I just didn't have to look at the team anymore. Unfortunately, the woman behind the laces did not take as long as I had hoped.

A southern-looking man said something to the boy with his gray eyes. Then this boy had to laugh, which was uncomfortable to me, because I felt it was about me.

I hurriedly handed over the keys to my father: "I'll go for dinner; you can cope on your own?" Dad just nodded his head, then didn't care about me anymore. I ran to the elevator and pressed the button. At the moment he couldn't get fast enough because I just wanted to disappear. I was all the happier when the doors opened after a pling. How wildly I pressed the button for the top floor work.

I exhaled loudly when the doors closed, and I was finally able to make my way to my room. In my room I threw myself on my bed and hoped that I would dissolve into air, unfortunately this did not happen. So I went to the bathroom well or badly to get ready for dinner.